The Third Look

Recently my brother wrote a review of The Prestige on his blog The Choked Blowhole.  Reading his review made me feel like perhaps I had missed the mark on this movie.  I wanted to like this movie.  I really did.  And yet, the first time I watched it, I found it wanting.  Second time I watched it, strangely disappointed.  Sadly, it got filed into the growing pile of disappointing movies not to be brought out again.  Until I read this review.

Let it be said at the very beginning that I am just a tad intransigent at times.  That being the case, there are not many individuals who could make me take a third look at a film.  Not wanting to be completely intractable, however, I decided to take one more spin in the magic box.  Needless to say, this is not an easy thing to do with this particular movie.  "Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled."  Unfortunately, once you know what the secret is, you can never really watch the trick the same again.

With mind as open as I could get it, freshly popped bowl of corn in front of me, I curled up on my couch with my newly rented copy of The Prestige. 

What first drew me to this movie was the undeniably stellar cast.  This movie has an incredible ensemble of individuals including the incomparable David Bowie and the fabulous Andy Serkis.  Then we go into the cast of main characters.  You can never go wrong with Michael Caine.  The man always delivers a stellar performance whether he's playing a butler or singing and dancing with the Muppet cast.  I first saw Hugh Jackman in X-Men and have been an avid follower ever since.   Somehow he manages to bring something different to every part he plays and I definitely felt like this was a new twist for him.  Finally, Christian Bale shows up as Alfred Borden.  What can I say?  Christian Bale could breathe for two hours and I would watch.  So far, I'm completely along for the ride.

The question then becomes, when did they lose me?  This is where I have trouble separating myself from my initial impressions.  Mostly because what turned me off the first time around was that I felt the movie was predictable.  I knew what was coming down the pike.  This time I really did know what was coming down the pike.  Instead, I tried to watch the movie from the perspective of what wasn't working for me.  Cast definitely delivered.  I could see how the story line developed as action led to counter-action. The characters were all believable.  And I really enjoyed the build up of action during the movie.  Which still begged the question what left me wanting.

Ultimately, I think I was stuck on two major points.  One was that feeling of predictability.  Perhaps if I had not seen The Illusionist first, I would not have been suffering from that overwhelming sense of deja vu.  Alas, just as I couldn't really go back with a blank slate perspective, I couldn't reverse the order in which I viewed these flicks.  Be that as it may, it's hard to buy into the magic when you know how the trick is done.  My other major hang up was the end of the movie.  I know they gave you a run through on how everything happened at the end, but I still walked away with questions.  Where did Cutter fit into the story?  Whose side was he on the whole time?  Perhaps it was just recognizing the ultimate body count in this movie.  There really is a lot of death.  It seems like it hints at much darker undertones that aren't fully explored.

Even with all the negatives, I will admit to enjoying the movie more this time around than in previous viewings.  My expectations were lower, which perhaps helped in the long run.  At the same time, I found quite a bit to recommend this movie which I think I overlooked last time around.  I'm not sure I'll be running out to add to this my personal collection, but I have a much more open mind.